Visual Artist Cha Young-seok Extends Solo Exhibition Smudge

Encouraged by positive audience response, Cha Young-seok, an alumnus of the Department of Fine Arts in the School of Visual Arts, has extended his solo exhibition Smudge until August 14. The extension was announced by Lee Hwaik Gallery, where the exhibition is currently on view.

In this exhibition, Cha departs from his earlier practice—which focused on realistically rendering familiar objects such as sneakers, watches, jewelry, and scarves—to instead explore the act of drawing itself, stripping away recognizable form and meaning. The canvases, filled with repeated lines accumulated over time, have been interpreted as an inquiry into the essence of drawing.

Born in 1976, Cha received his BFA from the Department of Fine Arts at K-Arts in 2007 and later completed his MFA in the same field. Selected as a Kumho Young Artist in 2009, he held his first solo exhibition at the Kumho Museum of Art in Seoul. Since then, he has presented his works at numerous galleries, including Pyo Gallery and Gallery Hyundai-Window Gallery. He is known for a visual language shaped by repetitive and disciplined processes used to reconstruct the forms of objects.

In 2024, Cha presented the solo exhibition Jouissance at Lee Hwaik Gallery, in which luxury goods served as an artistic theme. The title, drawn from a psychological term, refers to an intense state beyond ordinary pleasure. Through meticulous descriptions of objects, Cha expressed this ironic psychological condition. Smudge is on view at Lee Hwaik Gallery in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu.